microsoft exchange 2010 on dell systems · dell microsoft exchange 2010 on dell systems: agile...

Microsoft Exchange 2010 on Dell Systems Agile Consolidated Configurations

Solutions for 500 to 50,000

Mailboxes

Dell

Microsoft Exchange 2010 on Dell Systems: Agile Consolidated Configurations ii

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©Copyright 2010 Dell Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction or translation of any part of this work beyond that permitted by U.S. copyright laws without the written permission of Dell Inc. is unlawful and strictly forbidden.

November 2010

Dell

Microsoft Exchange 2010 on Dell Systems: Agile Consolidated Configurations iii

Table of Contents

1 Introduction ..................................................................................................... 51.1 Overview .................................................................................................. 51.2 Finding Your Solution .................................................................................... 51.3 About the Agile Consolidated Model .................................................................. 51.4 Hardware .................................................................................................. 51.5 Virtualization ............................................................................................. 6

2 500 Mailboxes on PowerEdge R610 with Dell EqualLogic PS4000E ...................................... 72.1 Solution Requirements .................................................................................. 72.2 Recommended Solution ................................................................................. 72.3 Architecture Diagram .................................................................................... 8

3 1,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge R610 with EqualLogic PS4000E ......................................... 93.1 Solution Requirements .................................................................................. 93.2 Recommended Solution ................................................................................. 93.3 Architecture Diagram .................................................................................. 10

4 3,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge R610 with EqualLogic PS6000X ....................................... 114.1 Solution Requirements ................................................................................ 114.2 Recommended Solution ............................................................................... 114.3 Architecture Diagram .................................................................................. 12

5 3,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge R610 with EqualLogic PS6000X Virtualized ......................... 135.1 Solution Requirements ................................................................................ 135.2 Recommended Solution ............................................................................... 135.3 Architecture Diagram .................................................................................. 14

6 5,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge R710 with EqualLogic PS6000X ....................................... 156.1 Solution Requirements ................................................................................ 156.2 Recommended Solution ............................................................................... 156.3 Architecture Diagram .................................................................................. 16

7 5,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge M710HD with EqualLogic PS6000X Virtualized ..................... 177.1 Solution Requirements ................................................................................ 177.2 Recommended Solution ............................................................................... 177.3 Architecture Diagram .................................................................................. 18

8 5,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge R715 with EqualLogic PS6500E ....................................... 198.1 Solution Requirements ................................................................................ 198.2 Recommended Solution ............................................................................... 198.3 Architecture Diagram .................................................................................. 20

9 10,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge M710 with EqualLogic PS6500X Virtualized ....................... 219.1 Solution Requirements ................................................................................ 219.2 Recommended Solution ............................................................................... 219.3 Architecture Diagram .................................................................................. 22

10 10,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge M610 with Dell/EMC CX4-120 ....................................... 2310.1 Solution Requirements ................................................................................ 2310.2 Recommended Solution ............................................................................... 2310.3 Architecture Diagram .................................................................................. 24

11 24,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge R810 with EqualLogic PS6500E ...................................... 2511.1 Solution Requirements ................................................................................ 2511.2 Recommended Solution ............................................................................... 2511.3 Architecture Diagram .................................................................................. 26

12 25,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge M610 with EqualLogic PS6500E ..................................... 2712.1 Solution Requirements ................................................................................ 2712.2 Recommended Solution ............................................................................... 27

Dell

Microsoft Exchange 2010 on Dell Systems: Agile Consolidated Configurations iv

12.3 Architecture Diagram .................................................................................. 2813 50,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge M610 with Dell/EMC CX-480 ......................................... 29

13.1 Solution Requirements ................................................................................ 2913.2 Recommended Solution ............................................................................... 2913.3 Architecture Diagram .................................................................................. 30

14 50,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge M610 with EqualLogic PS6500E Virtualized ....................... 3114.1 Solution Requirements ................................................................................ 3114.2 Recommended Solution ............................................................................... 3114.3 Architecture Diagram .................................................................................. 32

Dell

Microsoft Exchange 2010 on Dell Systems: Agile Consolidated Configurations 5

1 Introduction

1.1 Overview

This Microsoft® Exchange 2010 solution architecture manual contains possible configurations that can be used to architect your Exchange 2010 infrastructure. Samples in the manual are intended to serve as a blueprint or example for organizations whose requirements are similar. Each organization’s requirements can differ significantly, though, and include items not accounted for in these configurations (e.g. message hygiene or third party archiving). For a configuration sized to your specific requirements, please contact your Dell representative or use the Dell Exchange 2010 Advisor tool at Dell.com/Exchange.

1.2 Finding Your Solution

Sample configurations for Microsoft Exchange on Dell server and storage hardware are provided in three manuals available from the Dell.com/Exchange landing page to help you find an appropriate solution for your needs. The three documents, which correspond to the three Dell Exchange 2010 architecture models, each contain multiple configurations of varying sizes, requirements and hardware choices.

Small and Branch Office Model: Configurations ideal for small and branch offices with up to 1,000 mailboxes.

Simple Distributed Model: Configurations that are streamlined, dedicated to Exchange, use internal server storage or direct-attached storage (DAS) and take the most advantage of the new high availability (HA) and replication features of Exchange 2010.

Agile Consolidated Model (this manual): Configurations optimized for a shared, consolidated, and possible virtualized infrastructure.

1.3 About the Agile Consolidated Model

These configurations have been designed for larger organizations (1000+ mailboxes) primarily interested in enhancing efficiency and reducing costs through consolidation and standardization. By leveraging centralization and sometimes virtualization, this model is designed for robust, efficient, high-performing, and highly available and recoverable Exchange Server 2010 deployments. In particular, the agile consolidated model combines 11th-generation Dell™ PowerEdge™ rack and blade servers and Dell EqualLogic™ PS Series iSCSI SANs or Dell/EMC CX4 Series SANs with virtualization to enhance resource utilization, efficiency, and manageability.

1.4 Hardware

Sample solutions described in this manual use the following Dell equipment:

PowerEdge M1000e

PowerEdge R610

PowerEdge R710

PowerEdge R715

PowerEdge R810

PowerEdge M610

PowerEdge M710

PowerEdge M710HD

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/global/shared/sitelets/solutions/messaging/en/exchange_2010?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

http://www.dell.com/content/topics/topic.aspx/global/shared/sitelets/solutions/messaging/en/exchange_2010?c=us&cs=555&l=en&s=biz

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-m1000e/pd?refid=pedge_m1000e

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-r610/pd?refid=server-poweredge-r610

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-r710/pd?refid=server-poweredge-r710

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-r715/pd?refid=poweredge-r715

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-r810/pd?refid=poweredge-r810

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-m610/pd?refid=server-poweredge-m610

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-m710/pd?refid=server-poweredge-m710

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/poweredge-m710hd/pd?refid=poweredge-m710hd

Dell


EqualLogic PS4000E

EqualLogic PS6500X

EqualLogic PS6500E

Dell/EMC CX4-120

Click on the links to the product landing pages for additional information on each product. Note that blade servers (PowerEdge M-series) require a PowerEdge M1000e Blade Enclosure and do not fit into standard server racks.

1.5 Virtualization

Those configurations that employ hardware virtualization software assume a platform approved via Microsoft’s Server Virtualization Validation Program and deployed consistent with Microsoft’s published support guidelines for running Microsoft Exchange Server 2010 on a virtualization platform. The sizing recommendations in this document are based on testing done on various versions of Microsoft® Hyper-V™ and VMware® vSphere™ (including VMware ESX® or VMware ESXi™).

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/equallogic-ps4000e/pd?refid=storage-equallogic-ps4000e

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/equallogic-ps6000x/pd?refid=storage-equallogic-ps6000x

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/equallogic-ps6500e/pd?refid=storage-equallogic-ps6500e

http://www.dell.com/us/business/p/dellemc-cx4-120/pd?refid=storage_emc_cx4-120

http://www.windowsservercatalog.com/svvp.aspx

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc794548(EXCHG.80).aspx

Dell


2 500 Mailboxes on PowerEdge R610 with Dell EqualLogic PS4000E

2.1 Solution Requirements

Number of mailboxes 500

Average user I/O profile (messages/day) .14 IOPS (~160 messages/day)

Average mailbox size limit 2GB

Total active/passive copies per database 2

Not included in this solution Backup and recovery infrastructure

UM and Edge roles

Disaster recovery or site resiliency

2.2 Recommended Solution

Server Configurations Detail

All-in-one (Mailbox/Hub/CAS) server 2x PowerEdge R610 servers

2x dual-core processors with 12 GB of RAM

Number of DAGs 1

Servers per DAG 2

Number of Active and Passive Mailboxes per Server

250 active + 250 passive

Storage Configuration Detail

Storage target 1x Dell EqualLogic PS4000E

16 drives total

Data volumes per mailbox server 2

Databases per volume 1

Mailboxes per database 250

Disk type 3.5” SATA 250 GB

RAID type RAID 50

Additional details Databases and logs combined

45% estimated capacity for growth

NTFS allocation unit size = 64KB

Dell


2.3 Architecture Diagram

Dell


3 1,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge R610 with EqualLogic PS4000E


Number of mailboxes 1,000





Disaster recovery of site resiliency

UM or Edge roles




2x dual-core processors and 24GB of RAM

Number of DAGs 1

Servers per DAG 2


500 active and 500 passive


Storage hardware 1x EqualLogic PS4000E

16x drives




Disk type 3.5” SATA 7.2K RPM 500GB

RAID type RAID 50

Additional details Database and logs combined



Dell



Dell


4 3,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge R610 with EqualLogic PS6000X



Average user I/O profile (messages/day) .14 IOPS (~160 messages per day)





Additional server for Hub/CAS

UM and Edge roles



Mailbox server 2x PowerEdge R610 servers

2x quad-core processors and 48GB of RAM

Number of DAGs 1

Servers per DAG 2



Hub/CAS server 1x PowerEdge R610 server

2x dual-core processors and 12GB RAM


Storage hardware 2x EqualLogic PS6000X

16x drives per enclosure; 32 drives total




Disk type 3.5” 10K RPM SAS – 600GB

RAID type RAID 50


25% estimated for growth


Dell



Dell


5 3,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge R610 with EqualLogic PS6000X Virtualized








UM and Edge roles



Virtualization server(s) 2x PowerEdge R610 servers

2x Quad-core processors and 48GB

Mailbox server virtual machine (VM) 1x VM per R610

4x vCPU and 36GB of virtual memory

Number of DAGs 1

Mailbox server VMs per DAG 2

Number of active and passive mailboxes per mailbox server VM


Hub/CAS server VM 1x VM per PowerEdge R610 server



Hardware 2x EqualLogic PS6000

16x drives each; 32 total drives




Disk type 3.5” 10K RPM SAS – 600GB

RAID type RAID 50




Dell



Dell


6 5,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge R710 with EqualLogic PS6000X








UM and Edge roles




2x quad-core processors and 72GB of RAM

Number of DAGs 1

Servers per DAG 2


2500 active + 2500 passive


Storage hardware 4x EqualLogic PS6000X

16x drives each; 64 total drives




Disk type 3.5” 10K rpm SAS – 600GB

RAID type RAID 50




Dell



Dell


7 5,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge M710HD with EqualLogic PS6000X Virtualized



Average user I/O profile (messages/day) 0.15 IOPs (~150 messages/day)

Average mailbox size limit 512 MB

Total active/passive copies per database 2 copy DAG (1 active + 1 passive)


UM and Edge Roles

Site resiliency



ESX/Hyper-V (Host) Server (Processor/Memory)

3x PowerEdge M710HD servers 2x Six-Core processors/48 GB memory

Mailbox (MBX) Server Virtual Machine (Processor/Memory)

1 x VM on each Host server; 4vCPU/36 GB virtual memory

Number of database availability groups (DAGs)

1

Mailbox server VMs per DAG 3 Mailbox Servers per DAG


1680 active + 1680 passive mailboxes

Hub/CAS server VM 1x VM on each Host server

4vCPU/8 GB memory


Hardware 3x EqualLogic PS6000X Enclosures

16 drives/enclosure—48 drives total

Data volumes per mailbox server VM 8 databases/volumes (4 Active + 4 Passive Databases)

Mailboxes per database 420 Mailboxes per database

Disk type 10K rpm SAS—600GB

RAID type RAID-10

Additional details Data and Log combined 10% estimated capacity for growth NTFS Allocation unit size = 64KB for both DB and Log

Dell



Dell





Average user I/O profile (messages/day) 0.15 IOPs per user (~150 messages/day)

Average mailbox size limit 2 GB



UM and Edge Roles




2x AMD OpteronTM 12-core processors per server 128 GB of DDR3 Memory

Number of DAGs 1

Servers per DAG 2


2500 Active + 2500 Passive Mailboxes


Storage hardware 2x EqualLogic PS6500E 48x 3.5" 7.2K-RPM SATA Disks per enclosure Total Disks for entire solution = 96 Disks




Disk type 3.5" 7.2K-RPM SATA Disks

RAID type RAID-10

Additional details Data and Logs combined

25% estimated additional storage space available

NTFS Allocation unit size = 64KB for both DB and Log

Dell



Dell


9 10,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge M710 with EqualLogic PS6500X Virtualized






Not included in this solution Site resiliency

UM or Edge roles

Backup and recovery infrastructure



Virtualization server(s) 3x PowerEdge M710 servers

2x six-core processors and 72GB of RAM

Mailbox server virtual machine (VM) 1x VM per PowerEdge M710 server

4x CPU and 48GB of virtual memory


1




Hub/CAS server VM 1x VM per M710

4x vCPU and 16GB virtual memory


Hardware 2x EqualLogic PS6500X

48 drives each; 96 total drives



Mailboxes per database 1670 mailboxes

Disk type 3.5” 10K rpm SAS 600GB

RAID type RAID 50

Dell



Dell


10 10,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge M610 with Dell/EMC CX4-120




Average mailbox size limit 750MB

Total active/passive copies per database 2 (1 local + 1 remote)


UM and Edge roles



All-in-one (Mailbox/Hub/CAS) server 4x PowerEdge M610 servers

2x quad-core processors and 72GB RAM

Number of DAGs 1

Servers per DAG 4




Storage hardware 2x Dell|EMC CX4-120 with 4 enclosures each

15x drives per enclosure—96 drives total




Disk type Database: 4x 3.5” 10K rpm FC 600GB

Log: 3.5” 2x 10K rpm FC 400GB

RAID type Database: RAID 5

Logs: RAID 1

Additional details Databases and logs separate

2 hot spare drives in each site

RAID stripe or element size = 256KB

NTFS allocation unit size = 64KB for both database and logs

Dell



Dell





Average user I/O profile (messages/day) 0.1 IOPs per user (~100 messages/day)

Average mailbox size limit 1.5 GB



UM and Edge Roles

Site resiliency



ESX/Hyper-V (Host) Server (Processor/Memory)

4x PowerEdge R810 servers 4x six-core processors/192 GB memory

Mailbox (MBX) Server Virtual Machine (VM) (Processor/Memory)

3x VM on each Host server

4 vCPU/48 GB virtual memory on each MBX VM

Number of DAGs 3 DAGs

Servers per DAG 4 Mailbox Servers per DAG

Number of Active and Passive Mailboxes per Mailbox Server VM

2000 Active Mailboxes + 2000 Passive Mailboxes

Hub/CAS server VM

(Processor/Memory)

3 x VM on each Host server

4vCPU/12 GB memory on each HUB/CAS VM


Storage hardware 6 x Dell EqualLogic PS6500E iSCSI Enclosures

48 drives per enclosure—288 total drives

Data volumes per mailbox server VM 6


Mailboxes per database 670 Mailboxes per database

Disk type 1 TB SATA II 7,200 RPM Drive

RAID type RAID-10

Additional details Data and Log combined

8% estimated additional storage space available

NTFS Allocation unit size = 64KB for both DB and Log

Dell



Dell


12 25,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge M610 with EqualLogic PS6500E




Average mailbox size limit 1.5 GB

Total active/passive copies per database 2 (1 local + 1 remote)


UM and Edge roles



Mailbox server 6x PowerEdge M610 servers (3 local and 3 remote)

2x quad-core processors and 72GB RAM each

Number of DAGs 1

Servers per DAG 6


4167 active and 4167 passive mailboxes

CAS server 4x PowerEdge M610 servers (2 local and 2 remote)


HUB server 2x PowerEdge M610 servers (1 local and 1 remote)

2x quad-core processors


Storage hardware 6x EqualLogic PS6500E (3 local and 3 remote)

48 drives per enclosure—288 drives total




Disk type 3.5” 7.2K RPM SATA—1TB

RAID type RAID 10


6x hot spares in each site


Dell



Dell


13 50,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge M610 with Dell/EMC CX-480



Average user I/O profile (messages/day) .1 IOPS (~100 messaged per day)

Average mailbox size limit 1.5GB

Total active/passive copies per database 2 (1 local and 1 remote)


UM and Edge roles



Mailbox server 10x PowerEdge M610 servers (5 local and 5 remote)


Number of DAGs 1

Servers per DAG 10



CAS server VM 8x PowerEdge M610 servers (4 local and 4 remote)


HUB server VM 2x PowerEdge M610 servers (1 local and 1 remote)

2x Quad-core processors and 12GB RAM


Storage hardware 2x Dell|EMC CX-480 with 20 enclosures each (1 local and 1 remote)

12x drives per enclosure; 480 drives total




Disk type 6x 3.5” 7.2K rpm SATA 1TB per volume

RAID type RAID 10


25x hot spares per site

RAID stripe or element size = 256KB


Dell



Dell


14 50,000 Mailboxes on PowerEdge M610 with EqualLogic PS6500E Virtualized




Average mailbox size limit 1.5GB

Total active/passive copies per database 2 (1 local and 1 remote)


UM and Edge roles



Virtualization server(s) Config #1:

10x PowerEdge M610 servers (5 local and 5 remote)


Config #2:

4x PowerEdge M610 servers (2 local and 2 remote)

2x quad-core processors with 96GB RAM

Mailbox server virtual machine (VM) Config #1:

1x per each Config #1 virtualization server (10x total)

4x vCPU and 34GB virtual memory

Config #2:

2x per each Config #2 virtualization server (8x total)



2



Config #1: 5200 active and 5200 passive

Config #2: 6000 active and 6000 passive

CAS server VM 1x per Config #1 virtualization server (10x total)


HUB server VM 1x per Config #1 virtualization server (10x total)



Hardware 12x EqualLogic PS6500E (6 local and 6 remote)

48x drives per enclosure; 576 drives

Data volumes per mailbox server Config #1: 7

Config #2: 8


Dell



Disk type 3.5” 7.2K RPM SATA 1TB

RAID type RAID 10


12x hot spares in each site



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